3 ms·
It's not free as in you are not allowed to use OSM tiling servers for commercial purposes. "OpenStreetMap’s own servers are run entirely on donated resources. T
by zmk_ 8y ago
It's not free as in you are not allowed to use OSM tiling servers for commercial purposes. "OpenStreetMap’s own servers are run entirely on donated resources. They have strictly limited capacity. [...] OpenStreetMap data is free for everyone to use. Our tile servers are not." [1]. They've even banned some sites for abusing their servers, e.g., FastPokeMap in 2016 [2]. But there is a very clear way of switching to OSM and serving your own map tiles with any styling you want [3]. I personally think that startups like these should go for these options since their user base is concentrated in one region.
[1] https://operations.osmfoundation.org/policies/tiles/ https://operations.osmfoundation.org/policies/tiles/
[2] https://github.com/openstreetmap/chef/pull/78 https://github.com/openstreetmap/chef/pull/78
[3] https://switch2osm.org/serving-tiles/ https://switch2osm.org/serving-tiles/
- rmc 8y agoWell if you don't like the OSM.org tile usage policy, they'll give you a full refund. OSM.org doesn't prohibit commericial usage, per se. But if you're running a business, you shouldn't rely on volunteers from another project which you're not paying for.